Coach’s Outlook: As I look forward to the season, I’m very confident in the abilities and potential of this roster. Our greatest asset is experience. Most letterwinners are entering their thirrd or fourth year in the lineup. We’re going to rely heavily on that leadership and experience to take our game to the next level. Some new faces to the program will add depth to the roster as well as create internal competition for a limited number of playing spots.

Coach’s Outlook: With six returning starters, I looks for our team to have great leadership and game awareness. On the mound, we will be young and inexperienced but very competitive offensively and my hopes are to be quick and aggressive on the bases. We should have great opportunity to hit for power and implement strategic small ball.

Coach’s Outlook: With only one senior on the roster, we will be counting on many younger girls to mature quickly on the diamond. With the nucleus of other players if this happens, we will be very competitive.

Coach’s Outlook: We expect tight, competitive games this season as a whole in the WBL. It is a difficult year to project which team will finish on top due to top performers graduating and the competitive nature of our league as a whole. As for Celina, we had a younger squad last season that turned the corner late in the year. In the end, we were pleased with the way the team came together and we hope to get out of the gate faster with more experience, set goals and desired expectations.

Coach’s Outlook: This team is very athletic. Many of our players can play multiple positions on the field. We are working hard to determine what is the best position for each player to make this team as successful as possible. We have a great group of returners this year. I look for this team to be very fundamentally sound and look to have some big offensive bats with lots of speed. As a team we expect to win.

Coach’s Outlook: We return seven starters from a team that finished 18-3 and made the District Finals last year. We have a strong group of girls who will continue to improve. We look to be competitive in both the PCL and NWC once again, and hope to continue our success in the tournament at the end of the season. Our strength this year will be our pitching and defense.

Coach’s Outlook: We will be inexperienced in our pitching, but have various girls who are working hard to become better. We will have a balanced semi-experienced hitting lineup. We should have solid hitters in the middle of the lineup to drive in runs if the top of the order can set the table. We must stay free of injuries. Limit both the physical and mental mistakes. We must play hard on the defensive end due to lack of experience in key positions. We must not beat ourselves and keep mistakes to a minimum. We will need strong team leadership from our veterans and our pitching will need to rise to the occasion and challenge opposing hitters. We must “dictate the plate,” put the ball in play and force the opponents into mistakes using our team speed and athleticism.

Coach’s Outlook: They are a tight-knit team. They all want to succeed this season just as much as the coaches do, and I love it. These girls have been putting 110 percent into everything that they have been doing. Wjrther it be girls stepping up to take on the pitching position, working to improve their batting or being more flexible when it comes to positions. We have girls that can play more than one position, which for only having 15 girls, we have at least two backups for each position. Our goal is to win one more game then last year if not a lot more. We all talked about setting an individual goal and a team goal. Almost everyone of the girls said they wanted to have confidence, play their hardest and succeed as a team this year. As coaches, there isn’t much more you can ask for.

Coach’s Outlook: The determination to be better is what will drive this team this year. We have four returning upperclassmen, two seniors and two juniors, who are all willing to put the team on their shoulders and lead. The sophomore class is full of great athletes with the willingness to learn and be their best for the team. Our freshman class brings a lot of potential to the team with speed, knowledge and great attitudes. Staying injury free and having solid defense will be the key to our season.

Coach’s Outlook: We have a strong group of individual athletes that have really shown a lot in early practices. We can be very competitive if we can come together as a group and play as a team. With nine returning players, five that started on a regular basis for us, we have high hopes. Our infield is returning Shelby Alloway and Quinn Stewart-Evans on the mound, Zoey Curtis at third base, and Madison Robson behind the plate and senior leader Cassidy Deckling in center field. With this experience we are expecting these starters to step up and lead the way. We also return seniors Haylei Pees, Zoey Schlatter, and Emily Jones and sophomore Alex Jackson that will all see a considerable amount of playing time. We are adding junior Rylie Bame and freshmen Haylie Spearman, Maddie Grappy, and Cierra Simon. All in all, we have good key players this year to be successful; it will be a matter of how our girls come together and pick each other up this season.

Coach’s Outlook: This year’s Ladycats are looking to have a winning season and compete at the top of the PCL. Our seniors are a hardworking and very talented class who will need to be leaders on and off the field. Our juniors and sophomores will need to continue to improve their skills and perform at a high level to help eliminate weak spots in our lineup. Our talented incoming freshman class will need to quickly learn the speed and competitiveness of the high school level so they can also become successful contributors.

Coach’s Outlook: To continue to build on our WBL success over the past two years. We must continue to build depth and build a solid defense. We play in a very tough league, and we have to be ready to work every day.

Coaches’ Outlook: A new era has begun in the Three River Athletic Conference’s most southern softball school. The Spartans have intelligent, hardworking and gritty students who believe in one another “(We believe in we.)” and work each day to get a little better in each thing they do. We are the new Spartans.

Coach’s Outlook: With talent returning, the Lancers will try to turn the corner in the Northwest Conference race and really make a solid tournament run. Pitching and timely hitting are key factors in winning. Allen East, Columbus Grove, Crestview, and Ada are the main contenders for the title and the Lancers are looking to add their name to the list. The rest of the conference is always a threat and a solid test.

Coach’s Outlook: If the freshmen can learn quickly and the seniors perform as well as they have in years past, this team could surprise a few people. They are a very coachable team, willing to learn and put in the work to make themselves better.

Coach’s Outlook: We are fortunate to return all nine position players from last year as well as our DP. The girls have been working very hard in the off-season. The MAC, as in every sport, looks to be very balanced and competitive-Parkway will return a a lot from last season, including the league’s Player of the Year, Haley Hawk, and until someone secures the title from them, they will always be in the mix of favorites. Versailles and Coldwater will be very strong this year as well and although New Bremen lost Sophia Fox to graduation, their girls know what it takes to win. St. Henry has some young talent coming up as does Fort Recovery as if they continue to develop as they did over the course of the season, they will be challengers as well. We have strong senior leadership this year and with a host of experienced underclassmen, we hope their progress through last season and from the off-season carries over through our regular season. Keeping everyone healthy and playing as a team will play major roles in our success this season.

Coach’s Outlook: We have a good core of returning players that will have to assume leadership roles as well. We are hoping the new players come along and will be able to replace some of the players we lost off last year’s team. We will need to play solid defense and be able to execute on the offensive side of the ball. We will continue to work hard and compete every day in practice and hopefully it will carry over to the games.

Coach’s Outlook: Titan softball has a young team for the 2018 season with only one senior. All eight juniors saw time on the field last season but will need to play new positions. Even though there are a lot of questions on the team concerning positions, there is a lot of talent and players/coaches are excited to get started. Players are working hard and have a lot of energy.

Coach’s Outlook: We have our sights set high for this season. This is one of the most experienced teams I have ever had and very talented. After losing to the eventual state champion in the regionals last year, we know what we are capable of accomplishing if we stay hungry, focused and improve every game. Parkway, Coldwater and Minster return a lot of quality players from last season. All MAC games will be battles.

Coach’s Outlook: We have challenged ourselves with our schedule and we hope that will pay off in the end. We hope to get off to a better start this season. As always, we seem to be playing our best later in the year, which is a good thing. We hope to be competitive in the league and be playing our best come tournament time.

Coach’s Outlook: The 2017 season was one the Shawnee Indians fought many injuries. We hope to stay healthy and improve our defense. Shawnee hopes to be a fun team to watch and we hope to improve throughout the season and hope to compete for a league title.

Coach’s Outlook: We have a good mix of experienced returning players and youth. We have five seniors that have been starters since their freshman season. Kara May, Julie Mulholland, Bailey Swartz, Kendra Johnston and Jenna Henline will bring a lot of experience, leadership and offensive firepower to our team. We also return a senior battery of Mulholland at pitcher and Henline at catcher that we will rely on heavily as we develop some younger players in those positions. We have a total of seven returning letterwinners (six seniors and one junior), two sophomores, and seven freshmen on our roster. We are very experienced and talented at the top of our roster but we are very young and inexperienced at the bottom. Depth and experience at pitcher and catcher will be our biggest weakness, but we are excited to see the younger players grow in those positions. The NWC is a very competitive conference from top to bottom. We think that if we stay healthy, our strong senior class leads the way, and our younger players grow up real fast, we will be a team that can contend for an NWC title in 2018.

Coach’s Outlook: Senior starting pitcher and cleanup batter Madi Howell is out for the season after she ruptured her ACL in the winter. Rylee Burd is now the starting pitcher instead of number two. Her speed will add a new dynamic to our defense. With her primary focus now being on pitching, I am excited to see what she will do for us. Alyssa Alexander is a third year starter as a junior. Her role as catcher will continue to play a vital role. She’s my honorary senior who fills her role very well. Our infield is about the same as last year. Planning on continuing our focus on hitting. Become more aggressive base runners, using our speed, and working on consistency.

Coach’s Outlook: We will have a young team and have set goals to improve every day, wanting to change the culture around the school about softball. Finished last season with four wins overall, two in conference looking to build a winning program and keep the kids interested in playing. There isn’t much tradition at USV when it comes to softball and we have probably only had a handful of winning seasons and kids get discouraged and quit. We are hoping to change the environment and get the athletes playing softball and sticking with it.

Coach’s Outlook: Van Wert will be relying on the leadership and guidance of the three returning seniors as well as the other five returning letterwinners from last season. One of our goals is to bring a consistent approach to each game both offensively and defensively. If we can focus on the game one pitch at a time, I think this group of young ladies have the potential to do good things and be successful. We will be relying on the experience gained last year from our young pitching staff. Our defense will continue to grow with confidence each game and minimize the number of miscues made from last season. If we have good pitching and play sound defense this year, I think good things will happen. Offensively, we will need to bring a more consistent approach to the plate and on the bases in order to be successful. Knowing the WBL is a strong league, on any given day we could face our toughest opponent. As always, it’s going to be tough to compete in the WBL. We are hoping to improve upon last year’s record of 4-5 and season record.

Coach’s Outlook: We have seven positions to fill and we are missing 22 varsity letter winners from last season. We have girls who are very hard workers but extremely low on experience. They are working together as a team very well.

Coach’s Outlook: 2017 season ended early due to a string of mono and a lack of numbers, which kept us from competing for a league title and playing in the postseason. I am extremely excited for this season with 16 talented young ladies out and a good mix of upperclassmen and underclassmen. I really believe we could put together a successful 2018 campaign and have a great shot at bringing home a league title.